


No Better Feeling

by pewwishing



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Dancing, During Canon, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, aline is concerned, kit is pining as fuck, kit really sucks at dancing, ty is a pro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 06:24:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17278754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pewwishing/pseuds/pewwishing
Summary: Kit let out a shaky exhale and nodded as Ty restarted the sonata and stuffed his phone into his back pocket once more. He cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly, holding his right hand out to Kit.“May I have this dance, Watson?”Ty was smiling, so Kit did too. He took Ty’s hand and let the other boy pull him forward, shivering slightly as his other took hold of his waist. Their hands clasped together, and Kit thought they fit that way almost too perfectly.“Lead the way, Holmes.”Kit swore he saw Ty’s cheeks grow rosy just before they took the first step, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Ty had lost himself in the music.And Kit lost himself in Ty.





	No Better Feeling

Kit and Ty sat shoulder to shoulder on the floor of the library, backs up against the shelves. Ty had his nose buried in a book about creatures that lived at the bottom of the ocean. Kit thought most of them looked as if they’d been taken straight out of a child’s nightmares.

Kit, on the other hand, was not reading. It wasn’t his thing.

Watching Ty read was more up his alley.

Sure, he had his phone in his back pocket and could have been using this time to scroll mindlessly, but his friend’s gray eyes darting back and forth through the pages of his book was far more interesting than whatever was on his phone.

Kit found Ty’s expression whenever he found an unknown fact to be incredibly endearing, rare as it was, considering Ty could pretty much recite every single fact about whatever came to mind, to begin with. For him to find something he didn’t know wasn’t as common.

And for the record, Kit knew he loved to talk about his interests, so he always asked. And Ty always gladly informed Kit on whatever he felt Kit should know.

Kit was especially thankful that he’d gotten Ty to relax about Livvy for a short period of time, while half of the residents of the Institute were out trying not to get themselves killed in Faerie. He had suggested they take a break because, as he put it, “Ty seemed anxious,” which was partly true, but also because Kit was feeling the exact same way.

He relished in the fact that he was able to pull Ty away from trying to bring his sister back. Ty needed a reality check, and since Kit deemed himself too scared to ruin Ty’s ambitions, he figured that was the next best thing.

Kit knew he needed a reality check too, but he forced himself to keep that thought at bay. That was the difference between the two boys’ problems. Ty didn’t know any better, and Kit knew all too well.

It was the soft sound of Ty’s music that pulled Kit from the depths of his mind. His focus was back on Ty once again, who was still nose-deep in the pages of his book.

Ty’s headphones were cuffed over his ears. Kit couldn’t make out what he was listening to, but he was in awe that whatever it was didn’t distract Ty from reading. If anything, it seemed to give him more focus.

As much as Kit hated to interrupt Ty when he was studying, he gave the black-haired Shadowhunter a tap on the shoulder. With great patience, Ty bookmarked his page and lifted his headphones off of his ears, letting them fall around his neck.

“Yeah?” Ty tilted his head slightly and simultaneously flipped Kit’s heart over in his chest.

“Do you ever listen to your music out loud?” Kit asked. “Like, on a speaker or something?”

Ty shook his head. “No one else likes my music,” he explained, “all they listen to is pop, or heavy metal if you’re Dru.”

It suddenly occurred to Kit that he didn’t actually know what Ty listened to. At first, he figured Ty’s headphones only served as noise cancellation. But he did hear muffled music coming from them every so often.

“I’m guessing you aren’t a fan of heavy metal,” Kit commented with a snort. Warmth bloomed in his chest when Ty replied with a soft laugh and a shake of the head. “I can see why. I don’t think anyone can concentrate with that kind of noise in their ears. Not that it’s bad or anything, Dru likes it. It’s just—”

“Loud.”

“Exactly.” Kit rested his head in his palm. “So, what is it that you listen to that bothers your siblings so much?”

Ty shrugged. “Mostly classical music. Symphonies. Music that a lot of people find boring.” It was true, the word boring flickered in Kit’s brain right away. “I like it, though. It’s pretty,” Ty continued. “But Livvy used to show me some of her favorite songs sometimes. Ones she thought I might like, where the sound was soft, and the words sounded nice.”

“Did you?”

“Every time.”

Kit swallowed. His brain raced, looking for a way out of one of Ty’s inevitable “Once I Bring Livvy Back” tangents. Quickly, a light went off in his head.

“You should play your music out loud,” Kit decided. “I haven’t heard a lot of classical music. I might like it.”

Ty shook his head. “Dru won’t like it,” he said. “She might play her loud music over mine.”

“Who says she’ll hear it? You said it’s soft, and the door is closed.” Kit nudged Ty with his shoulder. “C’mon. We can’t share your headphones, and I want to hear what you listen to.”

Reluctantly, Ty pulled the wire of his headphones out of his phone. Before he pressed play, he looked at Kit, not meeting his eyes. “This is called Moonlight Sonata,” he said, his finger hovering over the play button. “It was composed by Beethoven in 1801. There’re three movements: _Adagio sostenuto, Allegretto,_ and _Presto agitato._ ”

Kit stared blankly at Ty. “That made absolutely no sense to me, but okay. Play it.”

“It’s popular, you may have heard parts of it before,” Ty said, then tapped the play button and turned it up, filling their section of the library with a soft, yet intense sounding piano.

While Kit had used Ty’s music as an excuse to pull him down to Earth, he would have been lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it. Ty was right, the music was definitely familiar to him, and it definitely was beautiful.

Ty had begun to hum along to the music softly, but stopped when he caught Kit watching him out of the corner of his eye.

“Sorry,” he said quietly.

“Don’t be sorry.” Kit frowned at him. “I don’t blame you for humming. It’s catchy.” He drummed his fingers to the rhythm of the piano. “I bet they play this sort of stuff at balls.”

Ty’s eyes widened, and he cracked a smile. “They do. This sonata, in particular, is very easy to dance to.”

“Have you danced to it?” If possible, Kit was even more interested in what Ty was saying.

“Yeah,” Ty nodded. “Malcolm used to hold parties. There was dancing.”

Kit didn’t know why he was so astonished. Of course Ty could dance. Ty could do anything.

“Do you dance?” Ty asked.

“Definitely not,” Kit assured him, his voice laced with humor. “I’ve got two left feet, you know?”

Ty nodded. “Not literally, I know.”

“Might as well. I would trip over myself if I tried.”

Kit noticed that Ty had gone silent. He was thinking, Kit decided, watching as the other boy’s pale gray eyes darted around the room. He swayed along with the music, drumming his fingers against his knee as if he were playing the keys instead of Beethoven.

“I could teach you,” Ty finally said. His words startled Kit, and he noticed right away. “Is that weird?”

“No, no, of course not.” Kit shook his head rapidly. His heart was pounding; the thought of dancing with Ty made him feel lightheaded. “I might trip and fall, or step on your feet. That’s all.”

“Not if I teach you the box step,” he explained. “It’s really simple. Only four steps. I don’t think you would mess up.”

Kit swallowed hard, feeling heat rise to the tips of his ears. “Uh, okay. Yeah, I’d like that. It might come in handy later.”

Ty nodded and stood up, pausing the music and pocketing his phone. “Take my hand,” he said, and Kit got to his feet and did so. Ty’s slender hand was cold to the touch, and despite the callouses on his palm, his skin was very smooth. “Now put your other hand on my shoulder, and I’ll put mine here.” Kit braced himself for what ‘here’ meant.

As it turned out, ‘here’ meant Kit’s waist.

Ty rested his pale hand against Kit’s hip bone with a gentle touch, and it nearly sent Kit flying out of his skin. His heart was beating incredibly fast.

“Your hand is sweaty,” Ty remarked.

“Yeah, I’ve got clammy hands, I guess.” Kit quickly wiped his hand on his jeans. “My bad.”

Ty pulled Kit a bit closer to himself, standing straight up. “The box step is a ballroom dance. It’s four steps in the shape of a box.”

“Shocking.”

Ty ignored his sarcasm. “I’m going to step backward with my right foot, and you step forward with your left. You can look down if it helps.”

It did help, but mostly so that Kit didn’t have to look at Ty’s face.

Ty explained each step in great detail, even though each movement was especially easy. Kit didn’t mind though. He still managed to trip over himself a few times, out of lack of skill or nervousness, he couldn’t be sure. But Ty had all the patience in the world with him.

Kit stepped on Ty’s foot, and the black-haired boy winced. “I guess I was wrong,” he said, “you definitely can mess this up.”

Kit lifted his head and laughed. “Sorry about that.”

Ty let go of Kit and took his phone out of his pocket. “Let’s do it with music.”

Kit let out a shaky exhale and nodded as Ty restarted the sonata and stuffed his phone into his back pocket once more. He cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly, holding his right hand out to Kit.

“May I have this dance, Watson?”

Ty was smiling, so Kit did too. He took Ty’s hand and let the other boy pull him forward, shivering slightly as his other took hold of his waist. Their hands clasped together, and Kit thought they fit that way almost too perfectly.

“Lead the way, Holmes.”

Kit swore he saw Ty’s cheeks grow rosy just before they took the first step, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Ty had lost himself in the music.

And Kit lost himself in Ty.

They kept it simple at first, not moving around much. Ty knew Kit was still getting the hang of the whole dancing thing, and Kit wanted to take things slow, to draw out this moment for as long as possible.

Kit stared straight ahead, right at the breathtaking view in front of him. Ty had his eyes closed, completely immersed in the sound of the piano. He seemed so at peace, and Kit thought he could probably watch Ty like this for the rest of his days.

But the song seemed to have ended.

Ty opened his eyes and grinned at Kit, who was baffled when the song began to pick up the tempo. Ty pulled Kit backward, and they began to spin in their steps, moving all up and down the aisle of shelves.

“The second movement,” Ty said, “ _Allegretto_.”

Kit stumbled a bit, but Ty kept him upright, giving him a reassuring nod as if to say, “You’ve got this.” 

The two boys swayed between shelves. Kit had tripped up several times, but Ty only tightened his grip on his hand and waist, keeping him from falling and taking them both down. Ty released Kit’s side and gave him a twirl, beaming as he did so. And Kit laughed, partly because he’d somehow managed to trip himself, but also because it was uncannily bizarre how natural it felt to be dancing with Ty.

Dancing with someone as beautiful as Ty. Doing anything with Ty. Dancing in general. It was all so strange. But it was right. So very _right._

And Kit adored how right it felt. Nearly everything did when he was with Ty.

But Ty was tricky. Kit wished that he understood Ty completely, but he didn’t. Only Livvy did. Only Livvy _could_ , Kit thought. But Kit did his best, and as far as he believed, Ty wanted him to.

The song had stopped again, bringing Kit back down to Earth.

Ty’s eyes shot open as the song started again and laughed. He stopped moving and grabbed his phone. “The third movement,” Ty stated. “ _Presto agitato._ They don’t usually play this at balls. Not at the ones I’ve been to, anyway.”

“I can understand why,” Kit replied, chuckling at how fast the music was. He wondered how Beethoven was able to move his fingers so quickly. “Are we done, then?”

Ty shrugged, looking a little disappointed. “I was going to restart the first movement, if you wanted.”

Kit grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

So, Ty restarted the music again, taking ahold of Kit and waltzing through the library.

Kit felt like he was flying, or rather, if Ty were flying and he was holding on for the ride. Either way, Kit decided there was no better feeling.

He closed his eyes too, feeling Ty’s grip on him tighten and send sparks of electricity down his arm and his back.

_No better feeling._

The universe did have its way of making things work, sometimes.

Not for long, though, Kit guessed, because as they neared the end of the first movement, Kit clonked his head on a bookshelf, startling both of them out of their music-induced trance. Ty tried his best to keep them stable like he’d done several times already, but they crashed and burned. Several books tumbled from the shelves, and Kit swore he had given himself a concussion.

Ty had collapsed right on top of Kit, conveniently placed so that Kit struggled to breathe. Kit had a strong sense of déjà vu.

Regardless of their awkward position, which was only considered awkward by Kit, they both began to laugh. Ty had doubled over in a fit of laughter, catching himself on Kit’s chest. Kit wheezed.

The music in Ty’s pocket was still playing, which Kit thought had made the situation a lot funnier than it should have been.

“I underestimated you, Watson,” Ty said finally, remaining where he was perched atop Kit’s abdomen. “You’re definitely worse than I thought.”

Kit managed to prop himself up on his elbows, his head pounding. “I may have underestimated you, as well,” he replied with a smirk. “You’re heavier than you look.”

Ty opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by the sound of the library door opening.

“I heard a huge bang, is everything alright in—what the hell?”

Kit and Ty stared at Aline like two deer in headlights. She stared right back at them, just as dumbfounded.

Kit couldn’t imagine how undeniably weird this situation must have been for Aline. Here they were, against a bookshelf, books scattered across the floor, Ty on top of Kit in an unintentionally suggestive position, and Beethoven’s 14th piano sonata playing from Ty’s phone speaker.

Finally, Aline shook her head, and Kit couldn’t blame her for trying not to comprehend the sight at hand.

“Nevermind. Helen has dinner on the table, so come down when you finish up whatever it is that you’re doing.” She turned to leave, but stopped and whipped around. “Oh, and I hope you plan to clean this mess up.”

As Aline left, Kit and Ty both looked at each other and laughed again. Ty rolled away from Kit and offered him a hand once he stood.

Kit gratefully took it, wishing that Ty had offered him his hand in a dance once more. Kit knew after their short moment away from the chaos that had plagued them in the past weeks, there wouldn’t be many other times like these. Times where half of the Shadowhunters weren’t trying to be rid of them.

Times where Ty wasn’t so fixated on bringing his dead sister back to life.

But just as they’d begun to dance, they’d stopped, and both boys were pulled back to reality. And Kit was up to his ears in guilt for letting Ty think he could get away scot-free with raising Livvy.

And Kit knew he should focus on the present, but he couldn’t help but hope that someday, just once more, he and Ty could dance together again.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was very self-indulgent but I hope I could help stunt y'alls sadness at least a lil bit lmao!! I hope I made it clear enough that this fic takes place during QOAAD. Cassie has me so whipped for her characters and I don't have the patience for TWP lmfao so here I am. Thank you so, so much for reading :) Let me know what you think.
> 
> P.S. I know next to nothing about Beethoven or music in general because I'm a normie so my apologies if I screwed up somewhere jsdhksdjfh


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